


Tu étais courageux!

by phanburnhamizzard



Category: Phan, Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), dan and phil
Genre: Dan and Phil Tour, French, Gen, M/M, interactive introverts, phanfichallenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 08:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15481839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phanburnhamizzard/pseuds/phanburnhamizzard
Summary: Dan and Phil are lost in the streets of Paris trying to find the venue for their next Interactive Introverts show.  This begins a day of stomach wrenching stress for Phil, who is already carsick from the bus travel.Type: Comfort, Tour, Minor Illness





	Tu étais courageux!

“Où est la bibliothèque?” Dan asked the kind stranger in Paris. 

“La bibliothèque est au centre-ville,” explained the stranger.

“Merci,” Phil interjected. 

“Merci beaucoup!” Dan corrected as they shook the stranger’s hand and walked away.

They headed downtown and found themselves in front of a library. 

“Well, shit,” Dan said, taking out his English to French dictionary and flipping through it, “Unless this library has a theater in it, I think we’re in the wrong place.”

“Give me that,” Phil said, taking the dictionary from Dan, “Theater is literally ‘théâtre’ Dan! We could have guessed that!”

“Let’s just ask this woman and see if she knows where it is,” Dan suggested. 

“Bonjour!,” he began slowly, “ Où est le théâtre?”

“Le théâtre est à l'ouest d’ici,” she said, pointing to the west. 

“Merci beaucoup!” They said in unison as they turned to towards the west. 

 

“If we’re late, it’s not like they can start without us,” Dan said, comforting Phil.

Phil was walking so fast, he was nearly trotting. “But the meet and greet fans are already there and waiting!”

“I know,” came Dan’s reply, “but again, they can’t start that without us either, and we’ll be there in a matter of minutes. Just calm down, Phil, it will be alright, I promise!”

 

It looked like it was going to be alright until they got to the theater and no one would let them in. The fans swarmed them as they knocked on the stage door, until Marianne finally answered her phone and came to the rescue by opening the locked door. 

“See you inside!” They said, as the bodyguard literally pulled them through the door and out of the arms of their adoring fans. 

 

Without taking time to change, they ran to the meet and greet area, waved, and stepped behind the divider, signaling Marianne that they were ready to start. 

The first fan came around the corner and Phil opened his arms in a big hug.

“Bonjour! Je t'aime tellement!,” she said, throwing her arms around Phil and giving him a big squeeze.

 

“Aww, I love you so much, too!” Phil said, grateful for the studying he had done on the plane.   
She then turned to Dan and gazed up at him as if he were a giraffe, “Salut Dan, tu es si grand!” 

“Je suis très grand, comme un géant!” Dan answered, using the correct words, but poor pronunciation for ‘like’ and ‘giant’. 

The girl smiled, then said, “I didn’t know you spoke French!”

Dan grinned and said, “You are too kind! We studied a few phrases on the plane, is all. Would you like us to sign your book?”

“Oui!” She said. 

They signed her book and Phil cleared his throat and said, “Voulez-vous une photo?”

“Oui!” She answered, gleefully. 

They posed for the photo and then she went on her way with a “Merci! Merci!” And a wave to the both of them.

Dan and Phil looked at each other. “Just 299 more to go!” Phil said. Dan laughed and waved to the body guard to signal they were ready.

 

After the meet and greet, Dan stepped around the divider to the screams of the fans and said, “Merci d'être venu. Nous espérons que vous appréciez le spectacle!”

Phil smiled and waved, then they walked out of the meet and greet area and found their dressing rooms backstage. 

 

Phil flopped down on the couch. “That was mentally exhausting!” He said. I don’t know how bilingual people do it! 

“They learn it from an early age, at least most of them do,” Dan said, relaxing into the overstuffed chair, “and so it comes more naturally to them in their younger years than it does to us.”

“I would hope so!” Phil said. “They were all so kind about our pronunciation! I know I messed up several times.”

“They seem like nice people, yeah,” Dan agreed. “It should be a great show. Speaking of which, let’s get the questions and scenarios from the website and start going over them.”

“Alright.”

 

Two hours later, the audience was seated and the into playlist had begun. They had thirty minutes left to go over their plans and suggest changes to the director. This is when Phil’s stomach usually tied itself into a knot and he became clammy and pale.

“Phil,” Dan began, “how are you holding up?”

“I’m sick,” he said. “But I’ll be fine once we get out there. Play for me, will you?”

Dan immediately sat down and began rehearsing his song and Phil leaned on the piano and took several deep breaths. Dan’s music always calmed Phil. He was still nervous, but less nauseous, which was a good thing. 

“Attention Interactive Introverts company, we have 15 minutes to curtain. 15 minutes. Thank you.”

“Oh God,” Phil said, his stomach knotting up again.

“Phil,” Dan said, standing up from the piano and taking his friend’s hands in his, “we’ve done this show over fifty times. You’ve got this.”

“I know. I just—“ he stammared, “I’ll be fine.”

“Yes you will,” Dan reassured him. “Now, let’s breathe.”

Together, they inhaled for a count of three and exhaled for a count of three. Then after three breaths of the same pattern, they increased their count to four. Then five. Phil was visibly relaxing and even staring to smile a bit. 

 

“Attention Interactive Introverts Company, this is your 5 minute warning. Places please. Places please.”

“Okay!” Dan said. “Let’s do this!”

“Okay!” Phil agreed, clapping his hands together. 

 

They took their places on stage and the intro music began.

“Que faisons-nous ici aujourd'hui, Phil?” Dan asked.

“Donner aux gens ce qu'ils veulent,” Phil replied.

And the crowd went wild.

 

Right before intermission, Dan cleared his throat and said, “Nous serons de retour dans une vingtaine de minutes. Assurez-vous d'acheter de la marchandise pour Capital Lester!”

Right on cue, Phil rolled his eyes and said, “Dites bonjour à Martyn! Nous vous verrons bientôt!”

 

Backstage, they both collapsed onto the couch. Marianne brought them cold towels to wash their faces with and they took a moment to catch their breaths. 

“I think it went good so far,” Dan said, panting.

“I do too,” Phil agreed, wiping down his face with the cold cloth. 

“The crowd is just great. What energy!”

Phil reached over and grabbed his water bottle and chugged down nearly all of it. 

“Not too fast, Phil, you’ll get sick again!”

Phil downed the rest of the bottle and then grinned. “I’m fine!”

“That’s what you said the last time!” Dan warned, but then started heedlessly gulping down his own water. 

 

“Places please,” came the nice voice from over the intercom.

Dan and Phil raced out of the dressing room, fresh make-up applied, hair re-combed, and outfits freshly steamed. 

As they made their way towards the stage, a stage hand scolded “Pas de course dans le hall!”

“Pardon, pardon,” they said in unison, slowing down to a brisk walk. 

“Wow, they are strict here!” Phil said.

“Très stricte,” yelled the stage hand. 

Dan laughed and Phil turned beet red with embarrassment. 

 

They took their places on the stage and the lights came up. The audience roared with applause. Dan glanced at Phil and swore he was glowing. 

After the show, they took their bows and said, “Merci d'être venu. Nous vous aimons tous. Bonne nuit!”

“Bonne nuit!” Phil echoed, as they bowed again, waved and ran off the stage. 

Dan patted Phil on the back as they ran off and then backstage, they listened to the crowd roar and gave each other a high five.

 

Back in the dressing room, they quickly de-briefed with the director and then raced to the shower. Dan won, so Phil paced back and forth while waiting his turn, dripping with sweat and gulping down water. 

Dan was out in ten minutes, and Phil rushed past him and just made it to the commode before vomiting. 

His stomach, a pile of nerves for hours before the show, then shocked with cold water, then adrenaline, then more cold water, had had all it could take.

Dan walked softly back into the bathroom and gently rubbed Phil’s back until he was finished.

“Are you okay?” He asked gently.

“Yeah. Oh God. I hate that,” Phil said, his face a sickly shade of green.

“Let’s get you showered off, Phil,” Dan said, turning the water back on in the shower. 

Dan helped Phil out of his clothes and stripped out of his own towel and they both stepped into the shower. 

Dan washed Phil’s hair and his back, taking extra time to massage his shoulders. Phil stood with his eyes closed and his hands across his stomach. 

“You need to be more careful about that cold water, Phily” Dan said softly. “It’s a shock to your poor system!”

“I know,” Phil said. “I just forgot.”

Suddenly, a knock on the bathroom door made them both jump.

“Boys?” Came the call from Marianne, “We have a problem.”

Dan stepped out with a towel wrapped around him. “What is it?”

“There are people still outside who thought they had VIP tickets. A vendor sold them as VIP and they got to see the show, but they weren’t let in to see you. There are about 30 of them, and they are literally standing outside and crying. They are tweeting that they hate you and that you said you didn’t have time for them. The parents and the vendor are emailing me.”

“Phil is sick,” Dan said quietly, pulling the door shut behind him, “So I mean, I could go, but I’d be alone. I don’t know what else we could do….”

Phil opened the door, wrapped in three towels. “I’ll do it,” he said. 

“Phil, you are still green!” Dan said. “You’re not going out there. You need to lie down.”

“No, I can do it,” Phil said. “Just give me a few minutes, okay?”

Dan looked at Marianne and nodded. “Tell them we’ll come out in fifteen minutes.” 

Marianne started to object, but Phil forced a grin and said, “I’m fine. Just give us fifteen minutes.”

 

Marianne left the room and Dan turned to Phil. “Baby, are you sure you’re up to this?”

“I can do it. I don’t want them to be sad,” Phil said, reaching for his stage clothes.

“Not those, Phil. Here, grab some clean ones.” Dan reached into Phil’s suitcase and found a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt and handed them to Phil. Then he jogged over and got some clean clothes from his suitcase and threw them on. 

Dan grabbed his hairdryer and hastily worked on his hair, glancing at Phil who was slowly putting on his clothes. Five minutes later, his hair was as dry as it was going to get in the time allowed, and looked back at Phil, who was toweling his hair dry in between trips back to the bathroom. 

Dan shook his head. 

Phil slicked his hair back with gel and just left it semi-wet. 

“You look great!” Dan enthused, gently patting Phil on the back. 

“Thanks,” Phil said. “Let’s go.” 

 

They walked past the stage hand who gave them a dirty look. Phil didn’t even notice. 

They approached the stage door and stopped to regroup. Phil pasted on a smile and said, with more energy than he had, “Let’s do this!”

 

Dan opened the door and the fans started to scream and clap. Dan and Phil waved and smiled, and to the fans, other than their wet hair, there was no evidence that there was anything wrong with Phil.

They posed for pictures, cracked jokes, signed books, and gave out hugs. Phil even worked in a few, “Bonjour”’s and “Merci!”’s . 

After the last fan waved and walked away, Marianne let them back into the theater. Phil sat right down on the floor. 

“Okay,” Dan said, taking action, and waving at the security guards, “I think Phil needs help to get to the dressing room.” 

Dan took Phil’s legs and the body guard took his torso, and together, they took him back to the dressing room and laid him on the couch. 

Phil mumbled, “I’m fine,” before turning his head falling fast asleep. 

“Maybe we should send for a doctor,” Dan said. “He has to be dehydrated.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Marianne said, getting out her phone. 

 

When Phil woke up, he was in the emergency department of the hospital with an IV of fluids and anti-nausea medication running into his arm.

Dan was sitting next to him, holding hand. 

“Hi,” Phil said, groggily.

“Hi there, Phily,” Dan said. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling a bit tired,” Phil said, “but I think I can still do the show.”

“We’ve finished the show, mate,’ Dan said gently. “Don’t you remember?”

“No," Phil replied. 

“You got sick after the show and then we had to do an impromptu meet and greet and then you passed out. Remember?”

“No. Really?” Phil said, genuinely confused. 

“Wow. I want whatever medicine they are giving you!” Dan teased.

Phil started to giggle, then held his stomach. “Ooo. That hurts.”

“Just rest, Phil,” Dan said. “You were brave today. That’s all you need to remember.”

“I was brave?” Phil said, as he fell asleep. 

“Tu étais courageux,” Dan said. “Tu étais courageux!”


End file.
